S&W Victory lend lease for review.

[spag]

I just picked this up this A.M.. I believe it's a Australian lend lease. All matching grips, crane numbers and the Cylinder and the Ejector star.
Looks to me to have been refinished but not 100% sure on that.
Serial #v443689. This is what I see as far as markings. I did not pay much for this revolver because I was not sure of all the marking and what they all meant.

1.Strap stamped with the flaming bomb & US Property
GHD.
2. Barrel right side 38 S&W CTG. Left side Smith & Wesson
3. Stamped on frame lower right is MADE IN USA FTR M / 54
and what looks like a M over 30 and 30 over L..
4. Left side lower frame VEGA SAC CA
5. Cylinder takes S & W only! 38 special will not fit.
Thanks

 

[spag]

More pics.

 

[Absalom]

I just picked this up this A.M.. I believe it's a Australian lend lease….
Looks to me to have been refinished but not 100% sure on that.
Serial #v443689. This is what I see as far as markings. I did not pay much for this revolver because I was not sure of all the marking and what they all meant.

Yes. All your assumptions are correct.

L-L from later 1943. FTR'd (refurbished), including a refinish, at Lithgow Small Arms Factory in Australia in 1954. All markings surrounding the MADE IN USA were applied at Lithgow.

FTR Factory Thorough Repair
MA Mach Arms (Lithgow code)
54 year
D^D Defence Dept property mark
The remaining stamp is an acceptance mark.

Vega Arms in Sacramento imported these in the late 1980s and sold them unconverted.

 

[ordnanceguy]

Hello Spag:

You have correctly determined most of what you need to know about your revolver. It is indeed Australian and went through the customary FTR process in the 1950s. Most of those guns were refinished but I cannot determine that from the photos to a certainty. The VEGA SAC marking is that of the importer which brought many of these Victorys back into the USA in the 1990s.

Your revolver was originally shipped from the factory as a Lend Lease gun in the November 1943 to January 1944 time frame.

Hope that helps you.

Regards,
Charlie Flick

 

[spag]

Hello Spag:

You have correctly determined most of what you need to know about your revolver. It is indeed Australian and went through the customary FTR process in the 1950s. Most of those guns were refinished but I cannot determine that from the photos to a certainty. The VEGA SAC marking is that of the importer which brought many of these Victorys back into the USA in the 1990s.

Your revolver was originally shipped from the factory as a Lend Lease gun in the November 1943 to January 1944 time frame.

Hope that helps you.

Regards,
Charlie Flick

Thanks for the info, yes mine looks to be refinished. They did a very good job of it. All numbers are still matching including the wooden stocks. Also, still set up to shoot only 38 S&W rounds.

 

[spag]

Yes. All your assumptions are correct.

L-L from later 1943. FTR'd (refurbished), including a refinish, at Lithgow Small Arms Factory in Australia in 1954. All markings surrounding the MADE IN USA were applied at Lithgow.

FTR Factory Thorough Repair
MA Mach Arms (Lithgow code)
54 year
D^D Defence Dept property mark
The remaining stamp is an acceptance mark.

Vega Arms in Sacramento imported these in the late 1980s and sold them unconverted.

Thanks for the info!

 

[opoefc]

S&W trivia: I bought some of these when they were first imported by Vega and sent for a factory letter. It came back and said that 8,000 of these Victory models had been shipped to Austria. I scratched my head for a few minutes and then decided it was a misprint and the letter should have said "Australia", of course. I called Roy and got a corrected copy and confirmed S&W wasn't shipping Victory Models to the Nazis! After WW2 we did furnish Austria with Victory models for civilian police units! Ed

 

[spag]

S&W trivia: I bought some of these when they were first imported by Vega and sent for a factory letter. It came back and said that 8,000 of these Lend Lease Victory models had been shipped to Austria. I scratched my head for a few minutes and then decided it was a misprint and the letter should have said "Australia", of course. I called Roy and got a corrected copy and confirmed S&W wasn't shipping Victory Models to the Nazis! After WW2 we did furnish Austria with Victory models for civilian police units! Ed

Hi Ed, so 8000 were lend leased to Australia, interesting. Thanks for the info.

Sal

 

[AlanDavid]

The figure of 8,000 revolvers to Australia is nothing to do with Lend Lease. this order which shipped in early April 1941 was fully paid for by Australia. The order was place via the BPC in New York on behalf of Australia, which co-ordinated purchases of munitions by the UK and the commonwealth.

Regards

AlanD

 

[Absalom]

It should be noted that the British Service models imported from Australia by Vega Arms in the 1980s/90s contained a random mix of pre-L-L and L-L era guns, both pre-Victory and Victory models across the BSR serial range.

With very few exceptions, all were refurbished at Lithgow between 1953 and 1955 and will have the same type of dull refinish and set of Australian stampings on the right lower frame as the OP's gun.

Revolvers appear to have made it into Australian hands in various ways. I have shown mine before, a May 1941 BPC purchase shipped to Britain and acceptance-stamped into British service at Enfield, and later somehow transferred to the Australians, to end up at Lithgow in 1954.

 

[DWalt]

The L-L Act was not passed by Congress until March 1941, and it took some time to get up to speed. I believe most of the war materiel didn't start flowing freely until around Aug-Sept of 1941. Prior to L-L, the USA was officially neutral, and any friendly warring power (e.g., the British) that wanted to buy war materiel from us, under US law had to pay for it in cash and transport it themselves. The L-L theory was that if we gave the British Commonwealth, and later other countries like the Soviets, the weapons of war that they needed, they would do the fighting with the Axis powers so the USA wouldn't have to. Pearl Harbor changed that idea overnight.